1300 attend anti-Wilders demo

Amsterdam – Around 1300 people attended a demonstration against racism and discrimination in the centre of Amsterdam today, considerably less than the expected turnout of 5000.

The organisers wanted to protest against the views promoted by populist MP Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party, which they described as “intolerant and discriminatory”. But they also pointed out that the demonstration was against intolerance and racism in the Netherlands as a whole. Former ministers Heddy D’Ancona and Hans Dijkstal addressed the crowd and around 50 Dutch celebrities supported the demonstration.

In the past few days around 50,000 people have signed a petition against Geert Wilders and his Freedom Party.